Embrace the Magic (5)
The children were satisfied with their clothes and straightened their shoulders. They struck a pose, just like their seniors had done a few hours ago.
“Pfft! Puhahaha.”
Then Corey started laughing at Rodin’s appearance. Rodin sighed at his own appearance.
It seems that there are no clothes ready for a child under five years old.
The clothes were too big. The hem of the top came down to below the knees. The sleeves were too long and fluttered, and the hem of the pants was so loose that you could clean the floor with it.
“Ugh.”
Rodin had no choice but to fold his sleeves. Once wasn’t enough, so he had to fold them three times to barely expose his wrists.
I also folded the bottom of my pants three times to an appropriate size. Then I could see my shoes, which were worn and worn out from being worn for a long time.
It still wasn’t cool. It looked like a kid wearing his dad’s clothes.
“I should fold too.”
He laughed at Rodin, but Corey was also short. Still, he was much taller than Rodin, so he rolled up his sleeves and the bottom of his pants every once in a while, and it came together into a more or less presentable shape.
“Everyone, pay attention!”
The children who were admiring the clothes all stopped moving at the sound of ‘Attention’. A single push and violence made the children react immediately.
“The number engraved on your chest is your name from now on. Those who don’t know numbers, hand! No, those who know numbers, hand.”
When he said, “Hey, who doesn’t know numbers, hands,” the kids raised their hands in droves. Then the instructor changed the order.
There were six children out of 52 who knew numbers. Rodin and Corey were among them.
“you!”
The instructor pointed to one of the six who raised their hands. It was Hedler, on the far left.
“Read the number written on your chest.”
“It’s three and fifty-seven again.”
“Good. You! What’s the number written on your chest?”
The instructor picked another child. He was one of the six who had raised their hands, and he was standing in the middle of the class in terms of height.
“Three, eight, seven.”
The child’s answer was written as 87. Since he only knew numbers up to 10, he had no choice but to answer as ‘eight, seven’ instead of ‘eighty-seven’.
“Listen up, everyone. From now on, the instructors and assistants will call you by numbers. Make sure you remember exactly what your number is! Assistants!”
“yes.”
“Tell the kids their numbers.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Teaching assistants stayed with the children and taught them numbers.
Hedler didn’t have a separate assistant because he already knew how to call his own number accurately.
One of the assistants also approached Rodin and Corey.
“You! Did you raise your hand to say you knew the number?”
“yes.”
“say it.”
“Three, one, zero, seven.”
The assistant clicked his tongue briefly at Corey’s answer. His expression seemed a little annoyed, as if to say, ‘Well, then.’
“Your number is three, one hundred and seven. Not one-hundred and seven.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“You. Tell me the number written on your chest.”
“Three again, one hundred and eight.”
The assistant shrugged at Rodin’s answer. He then came right up to Rodin and looked him in the eye.
“You’re short.”
“Yes, because I grew up less. And I didn’t eat well either.”
“How much do you know about numbers?”
“I can speak to the ten thousandths.”
The place where Rodin lived was a typical rural village. After the harvest, the village chief personally went around to each household to calculate the harvest and set the price. At that time, Rodin learned the numbers by sight.
Because it wasn’t a very big town, I didn’t learn numbers in the tens of thousands.
“Oh, that’s smart.”
“thank you.”
The assistant’s body turned towards Corey. And he explained in detail why it was ‘Baekchil’ and not ‘Ilyeongchil’.
“fist!”
“yes.”
“Children who have learned all the numbers, move to the large playground behind that building.”
It was the words of the instructor who was watching the children from the front. Rodin looked at the assistant and asked for advice.
“Can I go?”
“You can go.”
“Let’s go together.”
Rodin was about to head to the playground when Corey stopped him. Rodin looked at Corey for a moment, then returned to his original position.
“Okay. I’ll wait here.”
“I’ll learn quickly.”
“You can take it slow.”
The teaching assistant did not simply teach Corey’s number as ‘Baek Chil’. He also explained the principle of why ‘Il Yeong Chil’ becomes ‘Baek Chil’. He also taught him the concept of tens and hundreds.
“Rodin! Have you learned all the numbers?”
“I know.”
Before he knew it, Headler had come over. Rodin shrugged, pointing to Corey next to him.
“Wow, you knew the numbers?”
“It just so happened.”
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“friend?”
“Hmm, maybe?”
Rodin wasn’t sure if Corey was his friend or not. They had just met for the first time today and hadn’t talked much.
Still, aside from Headler, the kid I’ve talked to the most is Corey. If we were to measure our friendship based on the amount of conversation, Corey would definitely be my second closest friend out of the 52 people gathered here.
“Ohh.”
Headler looked at Corey and gave a small exclamation of admiration. I also laughed at Corey’s learning.
Corey was quite smart. He quickly learned the tens and then the hundreds.
“Okay. This is enough.”
“Thank you, Assistant Professor.”
The teaching assistant left. He patted Corey on the shoulder as they parted. The student seemed to like him quite a bit.
“let’s go.”
“friend?”
“maybe.”
This time, Corey pointed to Headler and asked. Rodin gave him the same answer he had given Headler.
“But do we have to write numbers from now on?”
“Hmm, I guess so.”
“Then I’m number 57.”
“I’m number 107.”
Rodin didn’t like the idea of erasing his name. It felt like losing something precious that he had protected for nearly five years.
“let’s go.”
“huh.”
The three of them stood side by side and went around to the back of the building. Then, a playground appeared that was incomparably wider than the one they had been in before.
“Wow! If we had done 33 laps here, we’d all be dead.”
“I can’t even do 10 laps here.”
The instructor I saw earlier and another instructor were linking arms, and several of the kids who had arrived earlier were gathered in front of them.
Rodin and his party also went ahead of him.
The instructor looked at the three new arrivals and let out a strange sound. It seemed that he was surprised that Rodin, the youngest, had appeared so early.
“You guys. Come here and take one key each.”
“What key is this?”
“Choose first. Then I’ll explain.”
The keys were strewn haphazardly across a large desk. They had no special markings on them, making it difficult to tell them apart.
‘It’s the same as the number of children.’
Rodin counted the numbers on the keys with his eyes.
There were 49.
There were three children who came early and were waiting, so if you add them up, it’s exactly 52.
Rodin grabbed one of the keys lying around. Following him, Headler and Corey grabbed the keys nearby and put them in their pockets.
Soon the children gathered one by one. They also took the keys from the table one by one.
When all ten people gathered, the teaching assistant stepped forward.
“The key you chose is the key to the accommodations you will be staying in. The accommodations are on the third floor of the building over there. Each room on the third floor is a four-person room, and those who chose the same room key will share the same room.”
“ah!”
Corey took out his keys and looked at them. Hedler took out his keys too and placed them over Corey’s.
“It’s different.”
“That’s right. It’s different.”
The keys that Headler and Corey had were different shapes. Rodin also took out his key and showed it to them both.
“Tch, they’re all different.”
“Okay. Can’t I swap these with other kids?”
“Who said it was okay to make noise? Everyone be quiet! Follow me. We’re going to the dorms now.”
The assistant took only the first 10 people to the dormitory. It seemed like they were sending an appropriate number of people first to avoid crowding.
* * *
The room assignments were complete. Rodin got the room right in front of the stairs, Hedler got the room at the back, and Corey got the room in the middle.
But the room assignment was meaningless. Headler stepped in and switched rooms with other children who had entered Rodin’s room.
It’s not like Hedler was violent or coercive. He just asked, “Do you want to change rooms?” and they handed me the keys.
The rooms closest to the stairs were assigned to Rodin, Hedler, Corey, and a boy named Landt. Landt was a little shorter than Hedler, but he was a very thin boy.
“They’re polar opposites. 57, 58. 107, 108. What kind of combination is this?”
The two tallest and the two shortest people were gathered in one room. It would be a very strange picture if they were all together.
“Oh my, my legs.”
“I feel like my legs are paralyzed.”
“Sleepy.”
“Me too. Can’t I just sleep?”
Even though it was only their first time talking, Headler and Corey hit it off. The way they talked to each other made it seem like they had been together for years.
“hungry.”
On the other hand, Rant was not the type to naturally join in on conversation. He would just quietly listen to Headler and Corey’s conversation and then respond appropriately.
Instead, I lived with the words ‘I’m hungry’ always on my lips. In fact, I could hear my stomach growling nonstop.
‘It is interesting.’
Rodin watched the three of them talking quietly with interest.
Although there is a bit of an age gap between us, we had a lot of fun hanging out together. I like it better now that there are 4 of us than when there were 52 of us.
“What should we do? Can we just stay here?”
“I don’t know.”
“When do you eat lunch?”
Bam!
At that moment, the door opened and an assistant came in. It was the same assistant who had guided the ten children to their dormitory. There was also a long device behind the assistant.
“Okay, there’s only 30 minutes left until lunch. Let’s just finish up quickly. Line up in order of your numbers.”
“Yes, I understand.”
When I say in numerical order, I mean in order of height.
Rodin went to the back as if it was a given. Headler was in front, followed by Rant and Corey.
“I’m going to measure your height, so up here.”
First, we measured Hedler’s height. Then, we measured Hedler’s shoulder width, chest circumference, waist, and thigh thickness. Finally, we measured his foot size, and all body measurements were completed.
“Hey, why is this……”
“Because clothes have to be tailored to your bodies.”
“Clothes? I received them today.”
He touched the clothes Hedler was wearing with his hand. It meant, “What did you receive today?”
“Are you going to live your whole life wearing just that? You need gym clothes and underwear, too.”
“ah!”
“Next. You. Go up.”
“yes.”
Starting with Hedler, I took measurements of Rand, Corey, and Rodin. Then the assistant pulled out a large drawing from behind the measuring device.
“This is the map of the Special Forces Training Center. This is your quarters. The building across from here is the library. This building in the middle is where you take classes. This is where you will go every day after the orientation. There are practice rooms and other training rooms behind this building, but you won’t be going there for a while anyway. You only need to know these three places.”
They were arranged in a T shape with the playground at the center. Rodin had also seen these buildings before entering the dorms.
thud!
The teaching assistant, who had finished introducing the painting, brought out an incredibly thick book. It was thicker than the head of an adult teaching assistant, and it was also enormous in size.
“Anyone here who knows the letters Leantho?”
“Excuse me, Assistant Professor. Are you speaking the Leantho script in the common language of the continent?”
The Leanto alphabet was created by the Leanto Empire, which fell 800 years ago. Currently, most of the continent uses the Leanto alphabet, so it is sometimes called the ‘continental common language’.
“Right. Okay.”
“Yes, I know.”
“This book contains most of the words we use in our kingdom of Riaz. If anyone asks in this room, you will be able to teach them well.”
The identity of the book was revealed through the teaching assistant’s answer.
It was a kind of dictionary. Rodin had seen a dictionary at the village chief’s house, but the dictionary the assistant had left behind was ten times thicker.
“All right.”
“You don’t have to feel burdened by that. The official language class will start right after the entrance ceremony anyway. Just think of it as helping you out a little.”
“yes.”
“The orientation is in five days, and the clothes will come out in four days. Also, from now on, we’ll exercise in the playground in front of here at seven o’clock every morning. We don’t have gym clothes yet, so at most we’ll just lightly run around the playground. If we’re late, we’ll get in big trouble, so our friends next to us will wake us up.”
The teaching assistant was quite friendly. It was hard to believe that it was the same teaching assistant who had been violent all morning.
“Okay, I’ll wake you up properly.”
“It’s time. The restaurant is on the first floor. Come down and eat.”
The assistant went out. At the same time, Rant grabbed the doorknob and looked outside.
“What are you doing?”
“If the assistant disappears, we should go to the restaurant.”
“I told you to go to a restaurant. Just go.”
He opened the door and stepped out. He walked out with courage and a captain’s spirit, but his movements were cautious.
Luckily, the teaching assistant was on his way into another room.
“let’s go.”
“You have to eat twice as much.”
